For years, U.S. authorities and fishermen have been complaining about illegal fishing for red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico, and now it's been revealed who is behind the lucrative trade: a Mexican drug cartel.
The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions Tuesday against members of the Gulf drug cartel, which operates in the border cities of Reynosa and Matamoros, across from McAllen and Brownsville, Texas.
While commercial fishing and drug cartels may seem like an unlikely combination, it makes perfect sense for a criminal organization.
The department says the cartel uses fishing boats to facilitate drug and migrant smuggling; along the way, the boats catch tons of red snapper, a commercially valuable but vulnerable species. The boats often launch from Playa Bagdad, east of Matamoros, on the Gulf coast.
"The Gulf Cartel engages in the illicit trade of red snapper and shark species through 'lancha' operations based out of Playa Bagdad," the department said. "Apart from their use for IUU (illegal, unregulated or unreported) fishing in U.S. waters, lanchas are also used to move illicit drugs and migrants into the United States."
To add insult to injury, these Mexican boats, often based out of Playa Bagdad, sell their catch in Mexican border cities, where they are sometimes shipped into Texas for resale in the U.S. market.
This occurs while U.S. fishermen had to respect strict seasonal limits or closures designed to protect fish populations.
"As the fishing of red snapper and shark species is under strict limits in the United States, and therefore those species are more abundant in U.S. waters, Mexican fishermen cross into U.S. waters to fish via these lanchas," the department said.
"They then bring their catch back to lancha camps into Mexico, where the product is ultimately sold and, oftentimes, exported into the United States," it continued. "This activity earns millions a year for lancha camps. In addition, it also leads to the death of other marine species that are inadvertently caught" on the long lines of baited hooks the boats use.
The Treasury announced Tuesday it was designating five individuals linked to the cartel for illegal fishing -- Ildelfonso Carrillo Sapien (a.k.a. "El Chivo"), Raul Decuir Garcia (a.k.a. "La Burra"), Ismael Guerra Salinas (a.k.a. "El Comandante"), Omar Guerra Salinas (a.k.a. "Samorano"), and Francisco Javier Sierra Angulo (a.k.a. "El Borrado").
